The previous fallouts didnt have that many skills to begin with. Seems like first aid and doctor skills were combined into single medicine-skill. Not sure if there are other changes.

nessosin

July 8th, 2008 01:39

No Outdorsman, Traps, Gambling, Steal, Throving. Interesting that they've cutted 4 gameplay skills, another 2 they've combined and only 1 fighting skill was left out. Certainly it shows direction which they've taken in develpoing the game.

Interesting that I never really used those skills even though I played the games through multiple times. Simple is the trend of today though - all extra needs to go.

woges

July 8th, 2008 01:47

I need to refresh more often I guess, but yeah, those skills. Traits & Perks still to come?

Remus

July 8th, 2008 02:33

There's interesting Q&A regarding the skills and perks on Voodooextreme:

Quote:

7) How much can you tell us about the stats, skills, traits and perks featured in the game? And what skills/perks were carried over and which were dropped from previous Fallout games? And why choose the ones you did carry over and why did you not choose the ones that were dropped?

Big question, and I can't discuss all the specific stats yet. I do know the skill list is coming out in a few weeks, perhaps by the time you read this. Perks will not be until much later, as we're still doing some final tweaks on them. I think when you see the skill list, the choices will be obvious, and they're the ones most of you would agree with.

Ok, time for some, perhaps, bad news. Traits have been rolled into Perks. That was a hard decision for us, and one that took, literally, years. We kept coming back to it, and re-discussing it, and once we were playing the game, found that the difference between the two systems was so similar that even half the entries in the community "design a perk" contest were actually traits. Take "Bloody Mess" for example, probably the most famous trait. Is the game really more fun if that can only be taken at the very start? Why can't you pick it at level 6? What's so important about having it only at the start? The perk choice is probably one of the most fun parts of the game, and to relegate certain ones to only be chosen when you first start, before you've even played the game and know how any of it feels, just didn't prove as fun to us. How do you know you want Bloody Mess if you haven't seen how bloody the current mess is? (did I just type that?) Anyway, trust me when I say this one was a debate, a long one, and a decision we're not naive enough to think will be understood or applauded by everyone.

Anyway, many traits from Fallout return, but as perks. And many perks return, as perks. Another change over the last year is that you now pick a perk every time you level, and the perks have been balanced accordingly. Like I said before, we found the level-up-pick-a-perk experience to be so enjoyable, it was actually confusing people why they couldn't do it every level. Perks also still have prerequisites for certain stats, including your level. New perks open up at even levels, so while you still get to pick a perk at the odd levels, you won't see any new ones based on your level, but may see a new one based on say, your Science skill.

The good news is that there are a ton of perks, around 100 if you include the multiple ranks. And with a level cap of 20, you still have only 19 times you get to pick one, so you need at least 5 playthroughs of the game to use them all. It was important to us with all of this, that the choices were hard for the player, no matter what the skills/traits/perks were, and that you couldn't see it all the first time through.

Turok

July 8th, 2008 02:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by nessosin
(Post 85868)

No Outdorsman, Traps, Gambling, Steal, Throving. Interesting that they've cutted 4 gameplay skills, another 2 they've combined and only 1 fighting skill was left out. Certainly it shows direction which they've taken in develpoing the game.

There is no gambling on the game. thats why the skill is not there.

* No word on whether children will be killable - when asked, Pete was evasive.
* No romances.
* The enemies are the most frightening in the history of RPGs and the game can be treated as a survival horror.
* We will often have problems with lack of clean water or food. The Geiger counter will sound pretty often. Hines says that when he plays the alpha at home, he is pretty much never fully healed - he's always either wounded or radiated.
* Eating food is not mandatory, but food increases your HP. However, you should look out for radiated food. Sometimes you will have to wonder whether you should eat radiated food, even with low HP, since the consequences of radiation are even worse.
* Radiation is a much bigger problem in FO3 than in previous games. It drastically decreases your combat abilities, and can even lower your skills permanently.
* Destructability of the environment will be unprecedented for RPGs.
* There will be around 50 different weapons.
* While we'll be able to find e.g. Power Armors early on, they will be in pretty bad condition (low CND bar) and will require extensive repairs or will get broken quickly.
* The role of Charisma is lower than in previous games, Fallout 3 relies on combat much more than FO1 and FO2. However, we'll be able to use stealth throughout most of the game.
* Many weapons can be constructed based on schematics.
* If you have your weapon on your shoulder, you can run and the NPCs are not aggressive. If you equip it, you can only walk.
* Jumping has no influence on the combat system, it's just for avoiding some obstacles.
* Enemies will not adjust their levels to that of the player. If you come to a certain place when your level is too low, you're expected to die.
* There is no gambling, you cannot participate in slaver raids nor guard caravans.
* No locations are randomly generated. However, depending on which way you'll head, some scripted events will appear there, e.g. you will encounter Dogmeat early on regardless of where you go.

* No word on whether children will be killable - when asked, Pete was evasive.
* No romances.
* The enemies are the most frightening in the history of RPGs and the game can be treated as a survival horror.
* We will often have problems with lack of clean water or food. The Geiger counter will sound pretty often. Hines says that when he plays the alpha at home, he is pretty much never fully healed - he's always either wounded or radiated.
* Eating food is not mandatory, but food increases your HP. However, you should look out for radiated food. Sometimes you will have to wonder whether you should eat radiated food, even with low HP, since the consequences of radiation are even worse.
* Radiation is a much bigger problem in FO3 than in previous games. It drastically decreases your combat abilities, and can even lower your skills permanently.
* Destructability of the environment will be unprecedented for RPGs.
* There will be around 50 different weapons.
* While we'll be able to find e.g. Power Armors early on, they will be in pretty bad condition (low CND bar) and will require extensive repairs or will get broken quickly.
* The role of Charisma is lower than in previous games, Fallout 3 relies on combat much more than FO1 and FO2. However, we'll be able to use stealth throughout most of the game.
* Many weapons can be constructed based on schematics.
* If you have your weapon on your shoulder, you can run and the NPCs are not aggressive. If you equip it, you can only walk.
* Jumping has no influence on the combat system, it's just for avoiding some obstacles.
* Enemies will not adjust their levels to that of the player. If you come to a certain place when your level is too low, you're expected to die.
* There is no gambling, you cannot participate in slaver raids nor guard caravans.
* No locations are randomly generated. However, depending on which way you'll head, some scripted events will appear there, e.g. you will encounter Dogmeat early on regardless of where you go.

I guess we need wait and see what kind of game this Fallout is going to be when come out.

With regard to child killing, this is from a community Q/A thing, found at voodooextreme today:

2) Are children and otherwise non essential or non-quest related NPC's vulnerable or invulnerable to accidental or purposeful (deadly) harm? And how about quest essential people? Please elaborate as much as you can, especially on why you choose to do it that way.

You will not be able to be a child killer. There are several reasons for this, some of them are very basic, like we wouldn't be able to sell the game, anywhere to anyone, if the children could be killed. I'm not using that as a scapegoat. We never wanted the game to offer any incentive or desire to be blowing kids away, so from our initial designs, we didn't know how we were going to handle if you shot them, we just knew it was going to be a big no-no, especially with a system like VATS and the graphic fidelity the gore has. Anyway, when attacked, all children flee and any regular NPCs friendly to the children will instantly attack you, so it feels good in the game, in that there is an appropriate response.

txa1265

July 8th, 2008 06:29

This is one of those times it is easy to get quite upset and just assume the worst … but we really don't know yet … I might assume many things that have been enhanced by this info, but I still don't know …

Thaurin

July 8th, 2008 10:08

As someone who has never really played Fallout that much, this game is looking very good. I couldn't care less if this game turned out to be unfaithful to the previous games, as long as it is a good game. And while the game looks to be combat-intensive, there will be no level-scaling. The combat is first-person, but very statistics-based. Looks fine to me.

Maylander

July 8th, 2008 10:19

What's up with the whole child killing anyway? Why are people always bringing up that question when asking about RPGs?

I completely agree with Bethesda - keep that sort of thing out of games.

drum

July 8th, 2008 11:02

Wait, NO STEAL? They are making Fallout without pickpocket? WTF?

I still had hopes for a decent RPG, maybe not having too much of Troika canon, but not too bad. My hope is lost.

magao

July 8th, 2008 11:05

No speech skill

The fact that there is no speech skill says it all I think. This is Oblivion with Guns (er - Personal Nuclear Devices).

As for child-killing - I'm firmly of the opinion that *no one* should be unkillable (in any game). It's up to you to decide your morals within the game. But there should be severe penalties for severe anti-social behaviour.

Personally, I've been both a saint and a psychopath in Fallout. And everything in-between. Considering I've played both FO and FO2 to completion over 40 times each …

FO3 is going to be bargain-bin at best, but probably not even then.

Prime Junta

July 8th, 2008 11:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by magao
(Post 85915)

Personally, I've been both a saint and a psychopath in Fallout. And everything in-between. Considering I've played both FO and FO2 to completion over 40 times each …

O_O

That sounds borderline obsessive. But then I've heard the same about my habit of reading The Lord Of The Rings every year.

(For the record, I've completed FO three times and FO2 once. I just started a new game of FO2, but the combat is so unbearably tedious I doubt I'll be able to stick with it anywhere near the end.)

drum

July 8th, 2008 12:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by magao
(Post 85915)

The fact that there is no speech skill says it all I think. This is Oblivion with Guns (er - Personal Nuclear Devices).

read the list again pls ;)

Holly Avenger

July 8th, 2008 12:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by magao
(Post 85915)

The fact that there is no speech skill says it all I think. This is Oblivion with Guns (er - Personal Nuclear Devices).

Doesn't speech appear at the top of the skill list, or am I missing something?

Alrik Fassbauer

July 8th, 2008 12:53

Fallout 3 = Stalker Clone.

Remus

July 8th, 2008 12:55

Could be the other way around, and Fallout series = Wasteland clone. :)